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Instructors: Lucio Biggiero
Event type:
Seminar / exercise
Org-unit: Graduate School | ZUGS
Displayed in timetable as:
Network Analysis
Credits:
4,0
Location:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
8 | 14
Course content:
Content
Broadly defined, Relational Economics includes not only economic studies, but also social and management-organization research, when the focus is not on the attributes of single agents – be them individuals, communities, organizations, or industries – but rather on the relationships among them and on the structures (networks) that they create.
The driving view is that no individual or organization is an island: real world is made of natural, artificial, social and economic networks. Therefore, in order to understand and manage individuals and organizations, we need appropriate methods that allow us to know relationships and structures.
Further, most socio-economic phenomena – and also many natural and artificial phenomena – are not shaped in the familiar normal or regular ways. Conversely, they are distributed according to rather irregular forms, very often as heavy-tail distributions. Hence, the familiar statistical parameters, like mean, standard, deviations, etc., are not useful: they are misleading.
For all these reasons, standard statistics, being focused on single elements’ attributes, is not suited to help understanding socio-economic networks.
The sequence of topics will follow this order:
· Firstly, the difference between standard economics research and standard statistics on one side and Relational Economics and relational methods on the other side.
· Secondly, the landscape of main methodological approaches to relational methods.
· Thirdly, the basic notions of social network analysis.
Methods
There will be 4 days of interactive lessons, plus one more day of familiarization with the use of one of the most used software for social network analysis.
Requirements
For this introductory course, no any special skill in mathematics or statistics is required.
Recommended lectures
The following two books are useful, respectively, to enter the field of network analysis and to get an historical perspective on the development of social network analysis:Barabasi, A. L. 2002. Linked: the new science of networks. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.
Freeman, L. C. 2004. The development of social network analysis: a study in the sociology of science. North Charleston, USA: BookSurge.
The following two papers are useful, respectively, to mark the methodological and epistemological difference between standard economics and Relational Economics, and to outline the landscape of relational methods.Biggiero, L. 2016a. Network analysis for economics and management studies. In Biggiero L. et al. (Eds.) Relational methodologies and epistemology in economics and management sciences (pp. 1-60). Hershey, PA (US): IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9770-6.ch001.
Biggiero, L. 2016b. Conclusions: Methodological pluralism and epistemology between and beyond relational methods. In Biggiero L. et al. (Eds.) Relational methodologies and epistemology in economics and management sciences (pp. 397-411). Hershey, PA (US): IGI Global
Educational objective:
Goals
?The aim of this course is threefold:
· Outlining the main methodological approaches to relational methods;
· Explaining why relational methods are necessary to run scientific research in the perspective of Relational Economics;
· Providing the basic notions of social network analysis.
Mandatory literature:
Recommended lectures
- The following two books are useful, respectively, to enter the field of network analysis and to get an historical perspective on the development of social network analysis:Barabasi, A. L. 2002. Linked: the new science of networks. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.
- Freeman, L. C. 2004. The development of social network analysis: a study in the sociology of science. North Charleston, USA: BookSurge.
The following two papers are useful, respectively, to mark the methodological and epistemological difference between standard economics and Relational Economics, and to outline the landscape of relational methods.
- Biggiero, L. 2016a. Network analysis for economics and management studies. In Biggiero L. et al. (Eds.) Relational methodologies and epistemology in economics and management sciences (pp. 1-60). Hershey, PA (US): IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9770-6.ch001.
- Biggiero, L. 2016b. Conclusions: Methodological pluralism and epistemology between and beyond relational methods. In Biggiero L. et al. (Eds.) Relational methodologies and epistemology in economics and management sciences (pp. 397-411). Hershey, PA (US): IGI Global
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